Recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees Cheap Trick have been making music for over 40 years. Bang, Zoom Crazy Hello their 17th studio album is their first without co-founder Bun E. Carlos and first with Daxx Nielsen (son of guitarist Rick) is a very nice mix of everything that is great about the Trick.
This Record Store Day release offered the new 10” EP Found New Parts – a reference to their last 10” EP Found All The Parts. It's a four song-sampler from their new album. “When I Wake Up Tomorrow” sounds vocally like a David Bowie track and is a great recording. “No Direction Home” & “Do Yo Believe Me” reference Cheap Trick referencing The Beatles. “Arabesque” is repetitive and riffy and only appears on the Japanese version of the album.
The EP works as both a nice little sampler and a nice collectors piece for fans of the band.
Here's the video review:
Special thanks to: Bun E. Carlos and Big Machine Records.
This year's Record Store Day spawned a
number of interesting releases. One of which was Complete
Columbia
from Memphis, TN cult legends, Big Star. On April 25, 1993 Big Star
reunited to play at University Of Missouri. The band hadn't played
together since early 1975, and given Chilton's inclination to dismiss
the band in interviews it was surprising to even drummer Jody Stevens
that the reunion ever happened. Fortunately, it did. The two students
who were in charge of the Spring Fling concert at the University Of
Missouri were huge Big Star fans and called Jody Stephens, at Ardent
Studios (where Stephens still works). He agreed to do the show if
Chilton would. To everyone's surprise, Chilton agreed.
The
Posies' Jon Aur and Ken Stringfellow, filled in the line-up to
replace the late Chris Bell on guitar and the (now) late Andy Hummel
on bass, respectively. The band played a great, if sloppy,
performance. Legendary music journalist Bud Scoppa, a huge fan of the
band, was at this time head of A&R at Zoo Records, recorded the
show and it was released to favorable reviews. The album cover
artwork is something of a reference to the Radio
City
artwork and even features a photo from William Eggleston (who also
took the photo that adorns Radio
City).
The RSD release is the first domestic vinyl release of the album and
contains six additional bonus tracks from the show. Upping the number
of tracks to 21 over the 1993 CD's 14. It's an excellent and
must-have release of any Big Star fan.
I.R.S. Records was one of the most
influential American record labels of the New Wave era. International
Record Syndicate was the brainchild of Miles Copeland III (older
bother of Police drummer Stewart). Copeland founded the British
record labels Illegal Records and Faulty Products in 1977 and 1978,
respectively. He had previously established a relationship with A&M
Records and in 1979 along with Jay Boberg and Carlos Grasso, made a
deal with them to distribute IRS Records.
I.R.S. was responsible for exposing the
general public at large with the likes of The Go-Go's, The Cramps,
R.E.M., The Fleshtones, Wall Of Voodoo, The Buzzcocks, Oingo Boingo,
The Fall and countless other alternative music acts of the late
1970's and 1980's.
Released in 1981, I.R.S. Greatest Hits
Volume 2 & 3 is a double-album sampler of then-current
recordings, released on the label. It personally introduced me to
several bands when I first heard it. Namely The Cramps, The
Fleshtones, The Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Stranglers. The album
features two songs by Stewart Copeland's pseudonym while he was in
The Police, rare single tracks from both Squeeze and The Police. It
features notable entries from somewhat obscure acts like Humans,
Fashion, Skafish, Payoloa$ and Patrick D. Martin. It also features
curiosities from ex-Velvet Underground cellist John Cale, ex-Damned
guitarist Brian James, ex-Squeeze keyboardist/BBC personality Jools
Holland, and BBC6 personality Tom Robinson. It contains great songs
by The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Fall, The Stranglers, The Cramps
and The Fleshtones.
The album is inconsistently excellent
and overall is a pretty good representation of the music that I.R.S.
Records. It was a pretty important album in shaping my own musical
tastes growing up. There can't be too many better albums of it's
kind. It's a great alternative music sampler of the early 1980's.
Highly Recommended!
Here's the video review (including an awesome K-Tel-esque commercial) :
The Suburbs were one of the greatest
bands to come from Minneapolis in the 1980's. Originally a jumped-up,
noisy new wave quintet, and later evolving into a more moody,
danceable outfit. The band's first record in 1978, was also the first
ever released on the Twin/Tone label (later home to Soul Asylum and
The Replacements) and would serve as the band's label until 1983. In
that time they released two albums, two EP's and three singles.
The second of those albums was Credit
In Heaven. An ambitious double-album platter, with a nice and varied
track selection and clear production via Paul Stark (who would later
produce The Replacements' Hootenanny album). The album's lone
single “Music For Boys” reached number 66 on Billboard's Dance
Music/Club Play singles chart. And it became something of a new wave
club staple.
While there is a singularly originality
to The Suburbs and their material; a few points of references are
Roxy Music, Talking Heads and David Bowie. Beej Chaney's vocals point
to Iggy Pop, while Chan Polling's voice recalls Bryan Ferry.
“Cigarette In Backwards” sounds like a boozy Roxy Music.
“Drinking With An Angel” sounds like Iggy Pop fronting Talking
Heads. “Idiot Voodoo” and “Dish It Up” sound like absolute
new wave dance classics, while “Tape Your Wife To The Ceiling”
and “Spring Came” sound like they should be alternative radio
classics. Being that it is a double-album there are a few lesser
tracks (namely “Macho Drunk”, “Postcard” and “Girlache”).
But even those tracks don't detract from the overall cohesiveness and
general effectiveness of the album.
The band's playing is tight and the
arrangements accentuate the excellently understated rhythm section of
bassist Michael Halliday and drummer Hugo Klaers. Lead guitarist the
late Bruce C. Allen is shown to be an original player and effective
foil to Chaney's spare, quirky parts. And Polling is an a master at
knowing what to piano parts to play and what not to play. There is a
shared sense of understatement which is common to all.
A highly recommended album.
Here's the video review:
Special thanks to: Doug Mashkow of New Music Scene and CD Island.
I.R.S. Greatest Hits Volume One was a
sampler of material by artists on I.R.S Records. It was available via
an offer that came with copies of I.R.S. Greatest Hits Volume 2 &
3. It is quite possible that this album was the Doing Time On
Vinyl compilation album that was scheduled, but never released.
It was released in a plain white sleeve with a orange sticker
indicating the name of album and the slogan “A sampler of tunes you
want to hear over and over again”. The copyright date is 1980, but
considering it was only released via an offer from an album that came
out in 1981, me thinks this didn't actually see the light of day
until 1981 as well.
It features great singles from Klark
Kent and The Buzzcocks, two tracks from both Oingo Boingo and The
Stranglers and a rare single by Berlin with Virginia Macolino on
vocals, before Terri Nunn joined the band. It also features Henry
Badowski's first appearance on a US LP, Chelsea's fine cover of The
Seeds' “No Escape” and Payola$ excellent “China Boys” single.
It's a nice little alternative new/wave
compilation album. I've only seen this album two times, tops in the
record shops. So, it's a semi-rare release. Recommended.
Aberdeen, Scotland's APB was a fairly
obscure band until their second single “Shoot You Down” began getting significant airplay on Long
Island, NY's WLIR-FM. Their story is the kind of thing that generally
speaking, just doesn't happen anymore. The bands' brand of danceable
Gang Of Four- inflected funk was hugely popular in dance clubs in the
early 1980's, so it's not that big of a shock that they'd appeal to
an audience. Only according to the band, it was completely shocked
when a major station in the US started playing the bands song,
unprompted by anyone, simply because they liked it.
College radio had been generally more
open to this sort of thing. Yet major stations with Alternative
formats which embraced New Wave were becoming more and more
influential. In short, this basically gave APB a career and their
largest following was in the New York tri-state area.
The band issued eight singles from 1981
to 1985. They're all compiled on this 1985 compilation album on Link
Records Something To Believe In. The tracks are “Shoot You
Down” (and its' B-Side “Talk To Me”), “Palace Filled With
Love”, “Rainy Day”, “One Day”, “What Kind Of Girl”,
“Danceability”, “Summer Love”, “Something To Believe In”
and its' B-Side “So Many Broken Hearts”. In my opinion, half of
the album is great and holds up well. The other half, less-so.
The album was reissued on Young
American Recordings as a double disk set in 2005 with many other
unreleased tracks. Recommended if you see it in a used bin for $5 or
under.
The Shadows Of Knight are one of the
definitive American garage rock bands from the mid 60's. Their most
successful chart entry was their top-ten cover of “Gloria” by
Them. It contained the then-risque lyric “She comes to my room”
which the Shadows Of Night replaced with “She Calls Out My Name”,
which ensured airplay in all markets. Although, in many major markets
the song reached #1. They also made the national top 40 charts with
their cover of Bo Didley's “Oh Yeah”.
The always reliable reissue label
Sundazed Music issued an alternate version of “I Got My Mojo
Working” which was recorded at a 1966 session at Chess Records.
It's a lively, raucous recording and a fine addition to their
released output. The more interesting side here however is the
B-Side. It's a promotional advertisement for Fairmount Potato Chips
that was released on a Flexi Disc on Auravision Records in 1967. It
is the band introducing themselves and then launching into bluesy
proto-punk song about a “Potato Chip”. It's worth the price of
record alone.
